Tubular fiber constructs are used for various industrial applications such as hoses, reinforcements, and protective materials. Depending on the usage, tubular fiber constructs are bent, wound in a spiral shape, or disposed in a meandering manner to fit a space. Accordingly, to prevent crushing or twisting of the tubular fiber constructs in various usages, a high kink resistance (flexibility) is imparted to tubular fiber constructs, and various methods of improving the property have been proposed.
Various types of such tubular constructs are proposed, including, for example, a fabric sleeve to bundle and protect elongated articles such as wires, cables, hoses and conduits, the sleeve comprised of warp and fill ends having an open construction, the sleeve having a substantially circular cross-sectional configuration, the sleeve comprising: at least one resilient filamentary fill end having a resilient set in a hoop configuration disposed in a plane extending substantially perpendicularly to the sleeve central axis; and at least one resilient filamentary warp end interwoven with the fill end, the warp end having a resilient set in a spiral configuration and having a pitch of from about 0.2 to about 0.3 turns per longitudinal sleeve inch (25.4 mm), the sleeve being discontinuous in the circumferential direction (JP Patent No. 2718571). Another proposed tubular construct is a vascular prosthesis comprising a 50 to 2000 dtex composite monofilament yarn melt-bonded to the outer circumference of the vascular prosthesis, the composite monofilament yarn comprising a high melting point component made of a thermoplastic polymer and a low melting point component made of a thermoplastic polymer having a lower melting point than the high melting point component (JP 2000-139967 A).
The tubular fabric sleeve of JP '571 is discontinuous in the circumferential direction and thus has a small gap or opening extending in the longitudinal direction along the discontinuous part. The small gap or opening may cause the leakage of a fluid or a powder during its transportation or may allow the penetration of linear bodies such as wires, cables, hoses and conduits. The literature also describes a configuration in which the edges of the longitudinal slit are overlapped to close the opening. The overlapped part forms a raised seam on the inner surface. The raised part may affect feed pressure for transporting a fluid or a powder. In addition, linear bodies such as wires, cables, hoses and conduits may be caught by the uneven inner surface.
The vascular prosthesis of JP '967 has, as described above, a configuration in which a 50 to 2000 dtex composite monofilament yarn comprising a high melting point component made of a thermoplastic polymer and a low melting point component made of a thermoplastic polymer having a lower melting point than the high melting point component is melt-bonded to the outer circumference of the vascular prosthesis. However, the melt-bonded yarn may peel off and thus the vascular prosthesis has low reliability. In addition, disadvantageously, a melt-bonding process is additionally required.
It could therefore be helpful to provide a multi-layer tubular woven construct that allows the transportation of a fluid or a powder without causing any problems and is suitable as a hose for protection of linear bodies such as wires, cables, hoses and conduits.